University of Toledo - Blockhouse Yearbook (Toledo, OH)

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Baseball Schedule — 1930 Bluffton, (there) Monday, April 21 FiNDLAY, (here) Friday, April 25 Defiance, (there) Tuesday, April 29 Ohio Northern, (here) Friday, May 2 Heidelberg, (there) Monday, May 5 Bluffton, (here) Friday, May 9 Bowling Green, (there) Tuesday, May 13 Defiance, (here) Wednesday, May 21 Ohio Northern, (there) Friday, May 23 Heidelberg, (here) Monday, May 26 FiNDLAY, (there) Thursday, May 29 Bowling Green, (here) Monday, June 2 A YEAR of experience did well for the novice gang of 1929. In all branches except pitching, the team has progressed. With the pitchers it is a lack of reliable control. The first game illustrates this erratic tendency. Seventeen Findlay men walked in this spasm which was a decided record for the season. The opposition from the conference menaces this year has been rather stiff. Defiance started a championship mob imbued with the idea of getting an encore on the cup. Findlay had a fleet of hard hitters but a rank pitching staff. Bluffton and Bowling Green were hard to stop due to the experience of their personnel. The schedule brought Toledo into fire against two Ohio Conference teams. This is part of the testing program to eventually enter Toledo in this conference as soon as the freshmen rule is in effect. -{ 90 }—

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I The baseball team of 1930 has not had a successful season despite the fact that most of the players are skillful. All the conference opponents are good. After a look at them Coach Watts has said that we have the better players, taken individually. Working as a team, however, there has been a sad lack of ability to function well enough to reverse the usual one to two run losses. The boys can hit the ball. The chief fault to find is the irregular control of the pitchers in the early games and the inevitable breaks that have aided the opposition just when the result of a struggle could revert either way. The catching end has been in the hands of Max Krause who is a very capable receiver. His disposition is care-free and he is rarely serious enough to die from sorrow. He totes a good batting average but is more of a liability on bases than an asset. This is because he hates to move fast. The pitchers are Paul Day, Eugene Shenefield and Ben Ryan. Day and Ryan have the most control trouble. Shenefield has been robbed of games twice through no fault of his own. Ryan is the only hurler who has a tendency to concede the other fellow is too good before he hits. Day is a good all-round player and can hit. At first base is Jones and Straka. Jones is used at third also. Straka never played the game before this year. He came out of retirement after the season started and showed a remarkable mechanical ability and lots of enthusiasm. If all the players had his pep we would have had a great club. He can ' t hit so well but will as he goes along. Jones is the big stick waver. His clouts have been far more often than the year before. His defensive efforts are commendable. Second base is played by Brick Evans. He is adept at fielding, knows his job, but is not serious enough to display his best form. He has hit more left field foul balls than anybody in the conference and when they land fair they are good for two bases, seldom more, because he has an aversion to three baggers. They require locomotion. John Arnold rambles around shortstop gap. He is not experienced enough to rate highly. He is rather inconsistent on ground balls but comes up with some tough ones at regular intervals. His bat prowess is in the same way. He needs a year or two of competition and will then steady down to A-1 performance. Edgar Byron held third until he quit to go to work. He was very dependable for gathering in the hot ones and could be figured upon -{91}-